Baby Shower

On Jan 21st, my wonderful amazing talented amazing, amazing, amazing friends threw me the most beautiful baby shower. I still can't believe how much thought and work they put into this shower. I felt like I was walking into a Pinterest board when I entered the house! The shower was at my parents house, and was hosted by my three best girls, Brooke, Megan, and Ashlee. The food was catered by La Creperie and it was delicious! La Creperie staff set up crepe stations in the kitchen and made fresh crepe carbonara for lunch and then some delicious dessert crepes afterwards. Scrumptious!

Be prepared for some pic overload!

Cupcake Table & Candy Station

Candy Details

Onsies strung throughout the house

Another shot of the dessert table

Diaper Cake and Name Blocks

Onsie Decorating Station

Brooke made tutus for every occasion for little Ry's 1st year, starting with St Patrick's Day! The tutu's were displayed around the house. What an amazing idea!

More Tutus...

Table Decor

Another diaper cake shot

Every detail was just gorgeous!

Check out the little hair clips that accented each centerpiece

It wouldn't be a party without Ashlee's cookies!

The girls made a dinner sign up sheet for people to volunteer to bring us dinner during the first month. I guess John will get fed afterall! ; )

Crepe Maker Extraordinaire setting up

One of the games involved me being blindfolded and having to guess what each different baby item placed in my hand was. I scored a 100%, thank you very much!

The presies!


Everyone knew what a big deal St P's Day is in the Hall household, and little R is going to fit right in!

Little Cousin Zoe helping with the presents. This is right before she told me that she's sorry my stomach will have to get ripped out in order to get the baby out. Hahahaha


We got several handmade sweaters from my Granny. Love them!




More St P's loot


The Grandma-to-Be's

The beautiful flowers John delivered to the shower. We are lucky girls

Jen and I-both expecting little ladies. It has been so fun to be pregnant at the same time as all of my best friends!

The moms and I again

Admiring my Bugaboo! Isn't she beautiful?! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Party Planners taking a breather

The soon-to-be GREAT Grannies!

Karen and I

Party Planners of the Year-My Best Friends = )


We had such a wonderful day. John enjoyed his "man shower" at Roscoes w/ the guys. His day basically consisted of hanging at the bar all day and NOT having to be anywhere near the estrogen packed house!

I can't believe how lucky we are to have such amazing friends in our lives!

36 Weeks

How far along?: 36 Weeks

Total Weight Gain/Loss: + 16.5 lbs as of this morning. Gone are the days of no weight gain! Side note-being pregnant during the winter months comes with an unforeseen problem-cold weather clothes just weigh more! I feel the urge to completely strip down every time I step on the Doc's scale since I'm wearing what I feel is an extra 5 lbs of clothing. Oh well, at least we've had a very warm Jan and I've been skipping off to my last couple doc appts in tank tops and flip flops = )

Maternity Clothes?: Yes, although I have somehow been making most of my pre-preg shirts work. These days, nothing is comfortable, so my go to outfit has been yoga pants and Target tank tops. Very sexy

Sleep: You would think that your body would somehow know that your days of peaceful sleeping are numbered, and that it would throw you a bone over the last few weeks of pregnancy so you can actually sleep, but no. I don't remember that last night I slept well, and it's just getting worse. The most comfortable place for me to sleep is on my reclining couch and not in bed.

Best moment this week: Buying the FINAL items that we needed for baby. I had an amazing baby shower last weekend (post coming soon), and we got so many amazing things. We spent the next two weekends organizing all of our new things and purchasing the remaining necessities off our registry. We are officially ready!!

Food Cravings: Dessert. I've really been craving pie, although I have not indulged that craving.

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: Lots of contractions, and some of them are pretty painful. Hoping that means that it's close, but I also know that it's totally normal for this point in pregnancy

Belly Button in or out?: Out and weird. I've been very lucky (knock on wood) in the stretch mark dept. I haven't had any yet to date with exception for a weird mark right over where my belly button piercing used to be. I guess I should have listened to my mom afterall and not pierced the damn thing!

What I miss: Being comfortable, my old clothes, and my body. I feel like it has been taken over completely, and I am ready to get it back to normal!

What I am looking forward to: Meeting the baby and seeing what she looks like!

Weekly Wisdom: Move. Even though sitting on the couch is all I feel like I have energy for, I feel so much better when I move. Walking, running errands, housework, etc all help my aching bones, and I sleep better.

Milestone: Doc telling my at my last appt that I can officially go into labor now and they wouldn't try to stop it. I've made it full term!

34 Weeks

Things around here have calmed down a bit after the whirlwind of the holidays. That means I have been in nest mode for the past couple of weekends. Most people feel the need to completely clean, organize, and rearrange their nests, but my desires are a step above that-I want a NEW NEST. But, since that's not on the table for at least a year, I am making due with our current nest. I spent last weekend making lists, doing laundry for the little one (I can't believe we all started off that tiny!), shopping for some items needed for the hospital, etc. 40 weeks is a long time, and the whole baby arriving thing seemed so far away that I hadn't really thought about any of this stuff until my early visit to L&D. That little scare made me realize that she will be here anywhere between 3-7 weeks from now (and hopefully not any sooner than that), so I'd better get my butt into gear! So, carpet cleaning has been done, newborn onsies have been purchased and washed, copious amounts of hats and headbands have been ordered from Etsy, and other necessities have been organized. My baby shower is next weekend, and I can't wait to see what my wonderful friends have put together.

Other than that, life has been grand. I am really starting to feel uncomfortable, tired, and worn out as the ends draws near, but I know it will all be over soon! I asked my doc at my last appointment what he policy on inducing labor is, and he confirmed that the longest he'll make me go overdue is one week. So that means this little babe will be in our arms no later than March 7th. Even though 1st babies are typically late, I've had a feeling that she'll be early. But, it's nice to know that if she does decide to follow in my never punctual footsteps, I won't have to be miserable any longer than 7 days.

In some strange way, I feel like we will get some of our normal life back when the baby comes. Even though everyone warns me that things will never, ever ever ever be the same, it will be nice to slip back into some of my normal, pre-pregnancy routines like working out, feeling good, wearing normal clothes again, etc. Come on time, speed up!

Here's a glimpse of a 34 week belly. Out of nowhere, my belly doubled in size. It really feels like it happened over night!